JEFF BEZOS INVESTS IN BUSINESS INSIDER [Full Internal Memo]

Here's the memo from Business Insider CEO and Editor-in-Chief
Henry
Blodget:

Team,

I wanted to share the details of the financing we mentioned last
night. (Apologies for not being able to share them then — closing
these things is an administrative nightmare, and it took a few
hours longer than we hoped).

I'm going to post about this shortly after 10 a.m. Please don't
say anything or tweet about it until after the post hits.

Basically, Jeff Bezos is making a significant investment in the
company. Our existing investors are also chipping in some more.
In total, we're raising $5 million.

This capital will allow us to continue to invest aggressively in
many areas of the business, including editorial, tech/product,
sales and marketing, subscriptions, and events. As we mentioned
last night, it will also allow us to expand our office.

Jeff's investment grew out of a dinner he and I had about a year
ago. We talked about the business, and he was excited about it.
(He sees some parallels with Amazon).
A few months later, he expressed an interest in investing.
My reaction was basically "Hell, yeah!"

Jeff's vision, leadership, and philosophy at Amazon have inspired
a whole generation of startups and entrepreneurs, including me.
Amazon has always focused on customers first, knowing that, if
they do a great job at that, everything else will take care of
itself. This obsession with customers and long-term focus are the
reasons that Amazon has been so successful. And this philosophy
is something that we very much want to emulate. (We have two sets
of customers, obviously — readers and sponsors. And we're
obsessed with both).

Jeff's interest, and Business Insider's extraordinary success
over the past year, are due to your efforts on behalf of our
readers and our clients. We have improved and grown dramatically,
and we were pretty good to begin with.

Our goal is simple: To become the best digital business
publication on the planet. We're making great progress toward
that. And this investment will help us get there.

Thank you again for your incredible work over the past year.
Here's to an even better 2013.